Poker has been around for hundreds of years, frequently shown as being played in saloon backrooms in Western Cowboy films. The romantic perceptions of these card sharks moving from town to town ‘Maverick’ style and cleaning up at the poker table occurs in so many famous films. Coincidentally these guys also happened to be the fastest gun in town and always got the Lady. The game has in the past had a reputation for being played by hustlers in the back rooms of pool halls and other similar places of ill repute. Most people have played poker in one form or another from the kitchen table games on a Friday night with the family to the regular ‘boys’ nights and those college funding games at School or University.
2003 was the year that Poker started its growth to worldwide fame as the most popular game of the decade. Internet poker and Television became the driving factor for the fastest growth of a sport since the Snooker explosion in the 80’s. The advent of televised poker such as Poker Million on Sky Sports and the WPT tour on Challenge started growing a cult audience. Under table cameras and pinhole cameras allowed the viewers to see the players cards. Therefore, we could now see how the pros played and how they bluffed. John Duthie, a TV producer was the first player to win a million pound on Television in the Poker Million event.